A white blanket of snow had settled over the sleeping streets. The sun had not yet begun its journey up the sky, still allowing the cornflower blue to fill the sky. Not a single thing stirred under the beautiful sky on the beautiful snow day, but Kris Wu.

Of course. It had to be Kris. As always, the feel of the light on early mornings thrilled his dark-accustomed heart. School was surprisingly cancelled, due to an unexpected blizzard. Kris had been waiting for this to happen all winter and, well, it just had to be on his dear Sooyoung's birthday. Of course, it wasn't necessarily bad; this meant that he could call her up in the morning and make her angry. Kris smiled to himself as he dialed the familiar number.

"Sooyouunngiiie!" he squealed in a mock imitation of her voice.

There was an exasperated groan. "Wu Yifan, you are not calling me at 4 A.M., are you?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. So what're you going to do about it? Huh? Huh?" Kris smirked as he heard Sooyoung grumble and curse under her breath, a sign that she was going to go on a rant.

"Kris, you are one of the stupidest people I have ever known. What is the point of missing a few hours of nice sleep?"

"Sooyoung-"

"You're not going to eat, you're just going to spam call awesome people like me. So, what is the-"

"Shut up!"

"-point? You want me to shut up? Okay, in your face. Seriously, you are sooooo stupid. How'd you manage to be at the top of the class? Along with moi, of course? I mean, I'm too perfect to miss marks. You have to admit it, it-"

"SHUT THE...!" Yifan hushed slightly. He had almost forgotten that his parents were still sleeping.

This time she really shut up. "What?!"

"Happy belated-" he emphasized the second syllable in "belated" with a touch of sarcasm- "birthday."

Kris rapidly hung up, laughing to himself as he calculated mentally.

Sooyoung was pissed.

His work was done.

What could go wrong now?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Despite his good mood, Kris still found himself thinking of his relationship with Sooyoung. While his friends had "hooked up", in the words of the seemingly innocent Luhan, with their interests, Sooyoung and Kris still hadn't...well...kissed. According to their friends, they had already shared their special moments, sometimes even making out (if not just pecking) each other in front of the extremely uncomfortable Sooyoung and Yifan. It was not just irritating, but thoroughly embarrassing to watch.

Yifan frowned to himself in annoyance, running a hand through his disheveled blond hair. Sure, he was making a lot of progress with his werewolf self, as were the rest of the pack, and even more progress with the lessons the anonymous woman had been giving them through their dreams. Come to think of it...what had happened last night?

The lady smiled, revealing her teeth. "You have done well in the exercises I gave you. However, there is a side effect." The 12 boys and girl leaned forward slightly, listening carefully.

"You must be careful. These methods I learned from the Red Bandits when I was younger. What you do not know is that I previously was a slave for them, captured during the Half Moon War and used as a spy against my own kind-and yours- the Blue. Unfortunately, the Bandits won this time. We surrendered. They were too powerful for us at that time, and the war was named after the time they usually are most powerful. The Red Bandits know when the enemy, us, use their ways excessively. When the Heng-O War, named after the Chinese moon goddess who helped us win, broke out a decade later, I was returned to the Blue. I learned the Bandits' knowing of this...the hard way."

The woman swallowed, shuddering as the memories washed over her.

"As you know, the Red side is very violent. We try to force them into peace, but no matter our efforts, they simply insist on war. When they knew that I was helping my people with their ways, they became furious. The leader, Hei An Du (a/n: means "black dark poison" in Chinese), confronted us with weapons and recklessly threatened our ruler, Chun Liang Yao (a/n: "pure bright medicine"). Luckily, our ruler was wise. Instead of killing the Bandit, he offered to teach the other side some of our healing properties, tricking Hei. What Chun taught them was actually a series of weakening movements. Hei was incensed and demanded another war, this time nameless because of its shortness, but we won because many of the Bandits were much weakened." She grinned. "But recently, the Bandits have been growing stronger. Many of our sources in Asia tell us that they have new weapons. If we are to continue working together..."

Kris scratched his head, concentrating. It had just ended like that? Impossible. He must've forgotten some section. Just as he felt his brain kicking into motion again, his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Kris...it's Sooyoung."

"Ha. Feeling better now?" Kris waited for an indignant response from Sooyoung.

"Are you crying?" He was panicked. Sooyoung had never cried before and certainly wasn't the type. "What's wrong Soo? Tell me."

"Eumma..." Kris heard her take a deep, shaky breath. "She...got...into..."

"What?!" Yifan prompted.

"A car crash, Kris. She's..."

"NO WAY!"

"Come to the hospital...q..quickly." There was another sniff before the line abruptly ended.

"If we are to continue working together, you must know my identity." In one fluid move, the woman reached up and grasped her skin, pulling off the wrinkled surface and revealing..

Kris opened his mouth slightly as the memory returned.

It was Sooyoung's mother.